Assam logs highest single-day spike of 8,339 Covid cases; 15 more die

Assam on Wednesday reported the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases for the third day in a row, with 8,339 people testing positive for the infection, pushing the tally to 6,70,128, Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said.

The state has recorded 8,072 and 6,982 new cases on January 18 and 17 respectively.

The number of active COVID-19 cases now is 35,161.

The new cases were detected from 64,699 sample tests done on Wednesday, while the positivity rate is 12.89 per cent, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.

Kamrup Metropolitan, which primarily comprises Guwahati city, logged 1,929 new cases, Mahanta said.

The district had recorded its highest single-day spike on Tuesday when 1,996 new cases were found.

Among the other districts, Dibrugarh reported 513 new cases on Wednesday, Jorhat 414 and Cachar 396, the NHM bulletin said.

Fifteen more fatalities were also reported during the day, down from 16 the previous day, the death toll to 6,248, it added.

Sonitpur reported three deaths on Wednesday, while two each were registered in from Golaghat and Jorhat. Baksa, Bongaigaon, Cachar, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Morigaon and Tinsukia recorded one death each.

The death rate in the state currently is 0.93 per cent, while the number of COVID-19 positive patients dying due to other reasons is 1,347.

Altogether 2,723 patients were discharged from hospitals and Covid Care Centres on Wednesday, taking the number of cured people to 6,27,372.

The NHM bulletin said 4,03,21,253 doses of vaccines have been administered in the state so far.